1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a voice receiving mechanism such as a telephone receiver, an earphone or the like for listening to received voices, and a handset for transmitting/receiving voices.
2. Description of the Related Art
In conventional handsets for telephones, radio equipment, etc., a voice receiving portion is fixed to a grip portion or the like of each handset, and thus the installation angle of the handset to the grip portion or the like cannot be adjusted.
However, the voice transmission/reception style (i.e., calling style) such as the attitude of a user, the orientation of the head of the user, the position of an arm of the user, etc. is varied every individual, and also the calling style is varied for during voice transmission/reception at all times although its variation is slight. Accordingly, with the conventional handsets, the voice receiving portion cannot be brought into close contact with the ear of the user, which causes leakage of received voices or invasion of external noises. Therefore, the user cannot listen to the received voices under good condition.
Therefore, the present invention has an object to provide a voice receiving mechanism and a handset which can suppress leakage of received voices and invasion of external noises so that a user can listen to the received voices under good condition, and also enable the user to immediately listen to received voices under good condition even when the voice reception is restarted, so that the user can listen to the voices naturally.
In order to attain the above object, according to a voice receiving mechanism of the present invention, a voice receiving portion is fixed to the ball of a ball joint, and a support portion supports the ball holder of the ball joint. Therefore, the voice receiving portion is secured so as to be swingable relative to the support portion in any direction. Specifically, if a user pushes his/her ear against the voice receiving portion and presses the voice receiving portion from the ear side, the user can swing the voice receiving portion in any direction relatively to the support portion. Accordingly, even when the calling style (voice transmission/reception attitude) is varied for every individual, or even when the calling style is varied during voice reception, the voice receiving portion can be brought into close contact with the user""s ear at all times.
The voice receiving mechanism is further provided with a braking member which applies a braking force to the ball of the ball joint. Therefore, under such a condition that only gravitational force or some other small external force is applied to the voice receiving portion or the like, the swinging motion of the voice receiving portion relative to the support portion can be prevented. In addition, even once the voice receiving portion is separated from the user""s ear, the orientation (the direction and angle) of the voice receiving portion which has been brought into contact with the user""s ear previously can be kept.